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Mage theorycraft
Overview of Mage Theorycraft Mages debate heavily how to spec; each spec benefits the mage differently and feeds into different aptitudes. Most mages will place the highest importance on one of these categories: * DPS is most important - Fire mages usually adhere to this belief * Battle control is most important - Frost mages tend to advocate this * Survivability is most important - Frost supports this goal the most * PvP is most important - This is a pretty generic concern, but Frost and Arcane seem to be the specs that provide the best performance here * Control of DPS/DPM is most important - Arcane/Fire hybrid builds tend to support this belief the most. Ultimately, it is a playstyle concern: what maging fits the player's style better, allowing the maximal performance. In a Burning Crusade raid, the mage role is generally accepted as a primary DPS one, with humanoid/beast CC, and minor decursing. However, skilled Frost mages can work as a kiter on snareable mobs, with the aid of their Water Elemental and their snares. Often the discussion on what spec is best turns on the belief of the importance of the non-quantifiables, such as survivability. * For raid DPS, the 10/48/3 deep Fire build is theoretically the best build. However, the elementalist and arcane/fire builds are close to the deep Fire theoretical performance. * Frost mages place great stock in Ice Block for dropping aggro temporarily, and Ice Barrier for withstanding a hit or two from a mob, permitting them to live where a Fire or Arcane mage might well die. They also have the burst DPS ability granted them by the Water elemental. It is without question that a deep Frost mage has the best AoE ability with the slowing talents for Blizzard and the target-able Frost Nova a Water elemental gives. * Arcane/Fire builds are the best for high DPS combined with burst DPS. * Arcane/Frost builds are rare and are some of the lowest DPS of all mage builds. * Frost/Arcane is a pure DPM build, and is good for longevity in raid encounters. * Arcane/Frost is becoming a well-regarded build for Arena work, because of Ice Block's ability to drop all debuffs, and the Arcane talents that allow high burst DPS. The Specs Arcane Arcane is a DPM/DPS tree. Assumptions Arcane Missiles is the major nuke used in a deep Arcane build Results Fire Deep Fire is the spec of choice for maximum DPS, without regard to DPM, burst damage, or snaring/kiting a mob. Assumptions * The classic Deep Fire build is a 10/48/3 build similar to this one. * The rotation the mage will be using is as follows: * 5 scorches, 7 fireballs, 1 scorch, 7 fireballs, etc. * A fireblast may be interspersed every 2 fireballs. Results Frost A deep Frost mage has high survivability and high DPM, as well as phenomenal snaring and AoE ability. Assumptions * Raid mobs are immune to Frostbite * Frostbolt spam with Fireblast is the optimal DPS rotation for Frost. * Rotation will be like: Fire Blast, Frost Bolt, Frost Bolt, Frost Bolt, Fire Blast * WC will be up * Spec will have these points(with 10 points left to go whereever): deep Frost Results Arc/Fire Assumptions Results Arc/Frost Assumptions Results Frost/Arc Assumptions Results Elementalist (a.k.a. Frostfire) Assumptions Results Trinkets Shiffar's Nexus Horn Shiffar's_Nexus-Horn Forum Link to Discussion Model written out by Murphrid. Assumptions * Common assumption is that Shiffar's procs 20% of the time on a crit. * Tooltip has been observed to be incorrect, it lasts 15 seconds instead of 10. * Assume a hidden cooldown of 45 seconds. (From the WoWhead page) Results * For a casting time of t and a crit chance of c, it will, on average, take t/(.2*c) seconds to proc the trinket (for 1.5 second Scorches and a crit rate of 30%, that's 25 seconds). * From the hidden CD, 70 second cycles. * You get 225 spell damage 15/70 of the time, or 21% of the time, equivalent to 225*15/70 = 48.2 +damage all the time. * This analysis neglects the 30 crit rating. See Also External Links Triple-point graph for Fire mages Blizzard's Mage forums Lhivera's Water Elemental FAQ Lhivera's Theorycraft Numbers for 2.1 Spell Haste Theorycraft Gear Theorycraft Category:Mages